


sea prunes and secrets

by meteor-sword (vaenire)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, Gen, Non-Binary Sokka, Non-binary character, Trans Character, trans Bato
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:20:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28273746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaenire/pseuds/meteor-sword
Summary: The major red flag was how quiet Sokka sat on the ride to the mall. No chattering about who he was meeting or what he was going to buy. Bato turned on the radio, unsettled by the silence but not sure how to break it himself.
Relationships: Bato & Sokka (Avatar)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 84
Collections: MMEU Winter Solstice Exchange 2020





	sea prunes and secrets

**Author's Note:**

  * For [reignofsummerstars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/reignofsummerstars/gifts).



  
  
  


There were a few things that tipped Bato off that something was going on. 

It wasn’t unusual for Sokka to ask Bato for rides-- to the library or a coffee shop or the mall. It was a little unusual for him to go alone, but not unheard of. 

It was odd for him to bring a backpack rather than his usual over the shoulder bag. 

It was questionable when Bato spotted Hakoda’s car in their driveway, since Sokka claimed he needed Bato to give him a ride because his Dad would be busy that night. 

The major red flag, however, was how quiet Sokka sat on the ride to the mall. No chattering about who he was meeting or what he was going to buy. Bato turned on the radio, unsettled by the silence but not sure how to break it himself. 

Something was going on, and Bato didn’t know if he was willing to drop Sokka off on his own while acting so oddly. 

“This is the mall with that bakery, right?” Bato asked casually, as if there were so many malls in their rural area that he would lose track of which was which. 

Sokka nodded an affirmative, still staying silent. 

“Maybe I’ll get some shopping done,” Bato said, letting it sound more like a comment to himself than to Sokka. Still, he glanced at Sokka while he turned off the small rural highway. “With the festivals coming up, and all,” Bato continued, as if he needed to explain himself to the teenager who asked  _ him _ for a ride, after all. Sokka hummed. 

It wasn’t long before Bato was pulling into the mall parking lot. Sokka looked at his watch-- as he had been doing for most of the drive, and said, “Sorry, I’ve got to run in alright?” 

“Sure, meet in the food court in an hour and a half?” 

“Yeah,” Sokka said, then grabbed his backpack from between his feet on the floor, flung the door open and shut and was gone. 

Bato sighed and took his time gathering his keys and wallet, wondering exactly what he expected to gain from dawdling around in the mall while Sokka got up to spirits know what. 

But he did want to pick up some sweets, and stocking up this early meant that the last minute rush for traditional candies hadn’t yet left the shelves empty. He bought a few containers of candied salmon jerky, sweet nut bread, and berries in case he had time to make  _ akutaq _ sometime this week. 

After he had visited the bakery owned by the Water Tribe woman-- who Bato was pretty sure was Hakoda’s cousin, but was not sure enough to ask-- and the Water Tribe grocery that had moved into the big storefront in the mall after one of the box stores finally folded, he checked his watch. Stil forty five minutes until his rendezvous with Sokka. He had a few bags, but nothing unmanageable, so he decided to stroll around the mall and see what there was to see. 

As it turned out, not much. The mall made a small loop, but many of the storefronts had been converted into more utilitarian uses-- dentist offices, community resource centers, even religious meeting places. Bato wasn’t a big shopper himself, but even he found the choices of actual stores to be lacking. 

He paused at a directory, trying to make sense of the map, when he looked up and saw the Youth Center, windows full of event flyers and local school colors and pride flags. 

Bato was a touch surprised by that last piece of decor, and he looked harder at the storefront. There was a small crowd inside, evidently a social event of some kind, and then Bato spotted the banner over the front door. “NB Night” it read in a garish combination of black and purple on a yellow background. 

Bato was still trying to remember what ‘NB’ stood for again, passively scanning the other flyers in the window, when his attention was caught by something inside the glass. Or rather, some _ one _ . 

Standing in one of the groups gathered together inside the Center, still wearing his backpack and his wolf tail but now sporting bracelets and a headband that he hadn’t been before, was Sokka, chatting amiably with the other teenagers. He was holding a plate of food and laughing at something another kid said, and when he slapped the shoulder of the person beside him, his eyes clipped through the kid and seemed to gravitate right to Bato. 

He should’ve turned away as soon as he saw Sokka, rather than stand and gawk like he had. He should’ve looked another direction and pretended to have seen nothing. He should’ve done  _ anything _ , rather than stand there and watch Sokka’s face fall before he ducked out of Bato’s sight. 

Bato turned away now, too late. 

=/=

He went to the food court twenty minutes early, ordering a bowl of sea prunes and setting down his purchases on one side of a four person table as he waited for the prunes to be cooked. In the meantime, he pulled out his phone and started his research, unfolding his reading glasses from his breast pocket. He knew that vocabularies had continued to expand and evolve even after Bato drifted out of those communities, after it no longer felt like the vital lifeline it had been earlier in his life. 

At some point the sea prunes were called, and he stood to retrieve them from the counter before settling back in for some serious reading. 

Bato was still wading through the avalanche of articles that came up when he searched “non binary” in his phone browser when the seat across from him was pulled out with a squeal before Sokka sat heavily. Bato glanced at him over his glasses, noting the way he crossed his arms-- no, not crossed, more like hugged around himself, pointedly looking away from Bato’s gaze. 

“Help yourself,” Bato said, nodding to the barely-touched plate of sea prunes. Sokka hesitated, before grabbing one and popping it into his mouth. 

Sokka set an elbow on the table, cheek heavy in his hand, and Bato could feel the tension rolling off of him-- not only tension, but confusion as Bato continued reading on his phone. The bracelets and headband were nowhere to be seen. Bato wasn’t going to be the one to start this conversation, and he’d let Sokka leave it alone if he wanted. 

“Are you gonna tell my Dad?” Sokka asked finally, and his voice was so tight it made Bato’s chest ache. 

Bato took off his reading glasses, folding them carefully and putting them back in his breast pocket as he considered how to answer that. 

“Why would I do that?” 

Sokka frowned and shrugged. His cheeks were red, and Bato recognized the heavy set of his mouth. He looked like his mother used to, when she got so frustrated she could cry. 

“Sokka, I don’t know all that’s going on, or how you feel or any of that. But I would never tell your father something you didn’t want him to know. Not like this, anyway,” he added the last part, remembering when Bato had definitely told Hakoda a few things Sokka surely wished he hadn’t, like when he came across him and Katara sneaking out one night, or other similar instances. 

Sokka didn’t react, just stared at him and tried to decide whether to trust him or not. 

“So do you feel… non binary?” Bato said, trying not to pause long enough to make it sound unnatural. Sokka looked away and shrugged. 

“You can talk to me, if you want,” Bato assured him. He tried to think back to when he was just figuring things out for himself, but the thirty years between now and then blurred his ability to recall his feelings. “That’s why you wanted me to drive you instead of your Father, right?” 

Sokka was hugging himself again. He looked down at his lap and said “I guess so.” 

Bato nodded. He was at a loss for what to say next, so he took a sea prune to buy some time. “Why don’t you want your Father to find out?” 

Sokka furrowed his brow then, hugging himself tighter. He shrugged again, and his shoulders were creeping up toward his ears. Bato pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes shut tight, so he missed the look on Sokka’s face when he said, “I just feel confused.” When Bato looked up, Sokka was chewing on his lower lip and looking at the sea prunes. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but there was a noted moisture there. 

“That’s okay, Sokka,” Bato assured him, feeling his heart break a little and a warm fondness spread in his chest for the kid. “How did you feel at the gathering?” 

Sokka swallowed. “Good,” he said, and his voice was growing even tighter, somehow, coiling up like a spring that would have to bounce back at some point. 

“Did you make any friends?” 

Throat too tight to speak, Sokka nodded. 

“I have to say, Sokka, I don’t know what you’re feeling or thinking or what’s going on at home, and far be it for me to tell you to do something you’re not comfortable with, but your Father was the first person I came out to. Both times, in fact. I know that’s different, for me to tell my friend versus you to tell your Father, I recognize that. But I’m just saying, if you think that it would help…” 

Sokka sighed, a sardonic edge to the exhalation. “I don’t want to have to  _ explain _ it to him, he asks so many questions and I just. I don’t know! I can’t explain how I feel!” 

Bato wanted to smile-- it was hard for everyone to explain themselves, at that age-- but he didn’t. The last thing Sokka needed was to be patronized. And besides, he remembered sitting on his friend’s bed at thirteen, fielding Hakoda’s unending questions about what feeling like a boy meant, and how Bato had come to that conclusion, and what was going to happen next, and, and, and. Hakoda never grew out of the childhood knack of asking more and more questions until he understood everything, taking clocks and computers and cars apart until he could put them together in his sleep. Some things didn’t work like cars, though. 

“I know what you mean,” Bato said, and Sokka looked at him doubtfully. “How often does that group meet?” 

Sokka blinked at that. “Once a month, on the first Wednesdays.” 

Bato nodded. “I think I can manage to give you a ride, then.” 

Sokka blinked at him again, sitting up a tad straighter, shoulders falling back to where they should be, away from his ears. “Really?” 

“If you would like that, sure.” 

Sokka looked at him skeptically at first, then his bottom lip started to tremble and the creases at the corners of his mouth intensified for a flash of a moment before a crooked smile split his face into a grin. “Really?” 

Bato sighed sharply, relief replacing the air in his chest. “Of course.” 

“That…” Sokka said, the uncertainty returning briefly, “that means a lot.” And then he grinned at the plate of sea prunes, long cold, and popped three into his mouth. 

**Author's Note:**

> ben plz take this humble gif i'm sorry i didn't think of it until after the others were posted <3 <3 <3


End file.
